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The Saudi Arabian Oil Minister, Ali Naimi, contends that an overemphasis on promoting renewable energy development could lead to a “nightmare scenario” in which investment falls in oil exploration while alternative energy is not ready to pick up the slack. Speaking to a group of oil executives in Houston, Naimi said that the massive and “highly efficient and economical” nature of the oil-based economy will make a rapid move to renewable energy supplies “costly and impractical." In apparent reference to the Obama administration, which is promoting a move to renewable energy, he said that forcing such a shift could have a “chilling effect on investment in the oil sector” and could lead to energy shortages if projections of renewable energy output prove too optimistic. Meanwhile, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports that despite European success in expanding energy production from renewables, the continent’s overall carbon dioxide emissions are not falling because the European Union’s emissions trading system is too lax.

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e360 PHOTO GALLERY

Photographer Robert Wintner documents the exquisite beauty and biodiversity of Cuba’s coral reefs, which are largely intact thanks to stifled coastal development in the communist nation. View the gallery.

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The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video, chronicles a Chinese village’s fight against a polluting chemical plant. It was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Watch the video.